Headshot Image courtesy of Jorge Meza and Southern Guild
Ep.254 Trevyn McGowan is the co-founder of Southern Guild gallery in Cape Town and Los Angeles, representing contemporary artists from Africa and its diaspora. Over the past two decades, she has dedicated her career to provoking and propelling art and design across the continent by empowering makers both creatively and commercially, elevating the production and presentation of work, and fostering an ethos of community. Trevyn and her husband and business partner, Julian McGowan, pioneered Africa’s collectible design category with the establishment of Southern Guild in 2008, specialising in unprecedented modes of making, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and the ingenuity of the human hand. With the gallery as their primary focus, they have expanded Southern Guild’s programme to encompass contemporary art across multiple media and form cross-continental dialogues between artists. Works by the gallery’s artists are in the collections of museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art and National Gallery of Victoria.
Born in Johannesburg in 1967, Trevyn graduated with a degree in dramatic arts from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and pursued a successful stage, film and television actress for 10 years. She founded Site Specific, a creative interiors agency which she ran for seven years before returning to live in South Africa in 2003. The McGowans established a number of brands and platforms to promote Africa’s creative sector, including GUILD Design Fair, the Design Foundation and the export agency Source (now renamed Design Network Africa), which supplies handcrafted homeware to global retailers. Their pioneering vision earned them places on USA Art + Auction magazine’s ‘POWER 100’ list of the most influential players in the global art world, City Press newspaper’s 100 World Class South Africans and Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business.
Gallery https://southernguild.com/
Trevyn and Julian McGowan open New location https://southernguild.com/news/southern-guild-announces-new-tribeca-gallery-opening
Artnews https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/southern-guild-tribeca-expansion-2025-1234764175/
World African Artists Unite https://waau-art.com/events/southern-guild-presents-the-artists-kamyar-bineshtarigh-alex-hedison-bonolo-kavula-romeo-mivekannin-zanele-muholi-ziziphonposwa-and-dominique-zinkpe-at-frieze-new-york/
Artforum https://www.artforum.com/news/cape-towns-southern-guild-to-launch-first-us-gallery-in-la-252964/
Cultured Magazine https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2024/02/22/southern-guild-los-angeles-gallery/
Lampoon https://lampoonmagazine.com/southern-guild-cape-town/?amp=1
Voyage LA https://voyagela.com/interview/exploring-life-business-with-trevyn-mcgowan-of-southern-guild/
Frieze https://www.frieze.com/gallery/southern-guild
Arthrobe https://artthrob.co.za/2025/08/27/but-there-is-one-world-thresholds-at-southern-guild-in-cape-town/
New African Woman Magazine https://nawmagazine.com/?p=21790
South Africa Décor&Design https://www.sadecor.co.za/interior-design-blog/events/southern-guild-returns-to-rmb-latitudes-2025-with-powerful-dual-artist-presentation/
Design Miami https://designmiami.com/galleries/southern-guild
Art.Co.ZA https://www.art.co.za/galleries/southern-guild-johannesburg
What’s on in Capetown https://whatsonincapetown.com/event/southern-guild-gallery/
Galerie Magazine https://galeriemagazine.com/southern-guild-gallery-cape-town/
Zanele Muholi
Kodwa II, Amsterdam 2017
UV- cured ink, aluminium
88.6 x 59 x 1.1 in. | 225 x 150 x 3 cm
Edition 1 of 2, 1 AP
Courtesy Zanele Muholi; Southern Guild, Cape Town/ Los Angeles; and Yancey Richardson, New York. © Zanele Muholi
Usha Seejarim
He Seeks Perfection 2025
Wooden clothes pegs, steel wire, wood stain
49.6 x 56.3 x 11.8 in. | 126 x 143 x 30 cm
Image courtesy of Lea Crafford/Southern Guild
Dominique Zinkpè
Force Huamaine 2025
Bronze
47.6 x 9.9 x 6.8 in. | 121 x 25 x 17 cm
Edition 1 of 7
Image courtesy of Lea Crafford/Southern Guild
Manyaku Mashilo
In the radiance of stars 2025
Acrylic, oil on canvas
67.9 x 118.5 in. | 172.5 x 301 cm
Image courtesy of Lea Crafford/ Southern Guild
On view at Southern Guild Cape Town (until 29 January 2026)
iNgqweji by Andile Dyalvane (pronounced “in-gwe-jee”)
Image courtesy of Christopher Wormald and Southern Guild
On view at Southern Guild Cape Town (until 29 January 2026)
Dumalitshona by Madoda Fani (pronounced “doo-ma-lee-TSHOH-nah”)
Image courtesy of Christopher Wormald and Southern Guild
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